Partners

Interview with LSW Partner – Artur Zawadowski

The development perspectives of LSW and a new restructuring and financing practice, his observations on the legal market, as well as plans for 2019 – about all this we talk with a recently nominated LSW Partner, Artur Zawadowski.

IP Blog for creative industry

Where to find us

Protecting reputation

For years, we have successfully supported clients in their fight to protect the reputation. We have won many high profile cases, some with landmark rulings.

Protection of personality rights:

Every year, we handle dozens of cases concerning the protection of personality rights

We take effective pre-trial actions, and represent clients in court

We work for entities whose personality rights have been violated, and we also help effectively defend clients against claims

We prepare legal opinions on the risks associated with infringement of personality rights in the artistic, journalistic or marketing activities, and advise if disputes arise

We represent companies and institutions defending their reputation, as well as individuals, including politicians, journalists, artists, businessmen and athletes

We handle precedent cases; we also deal with untypical cases at the intersection of the protection of personality rights – such as stalking or reparations for repressions from the Polish People’s Republic

We also have experience in criminal cases regarding defamation and press law

Image crises:

We advise in crisis situations

We advise how to respond and protect the reputation and the brand value

Media crises:

We handle court proceedings in matters of image and reputation protection

We have represented many public figures in disputes with e.g. press publishers and portals

Reputation of a TV station

LSW represented one of the biggest television stations in Poland in a dispute over the protection of personality rights. The subject of the dispute were the publications in a popular daily newspaper. The accusations concerned alleged illegal and unethical activities taken by the broadcaster and editors of news programmes. The case ended with a settlement taking the demands of the LSW’s client into account.

Media crisis

LSW provided legal advice to one of the banks in the scope of management of a media crisis. The situation was triggered by the disclosure of materials describing allegedly illegal activities of employees and associates of the bank towards customers.

Wróblewski vs CAB

The LSW team handled a high profile case of a journalist, Bogdan Wróblewski, regarding the protection of personality rights. The trial concerned the CAB’s acquisition of the journalist’s telecommunications data during a 6 month period between 2005 and 2007. The court found that obtaining the plaintiff’s billings and other telecommunications data constituted an unlawful interference with the plaintiff’s personality rights. In particular, this applies to the right to privacy and to the communications confidentiality that is embraced by the right to privacy. It was a landmark ruling – for the first time, the court determined restrictive limits on the use of billings by special services, which have the widest access to them. The case of Mr Wróblewski illustrates a greater problem of surveillance of journalists, hence this ruling is of great importance for the further development of the use of this instrument, and has made authorised entities not use it as freely as they have before. The CAB apologised to Mr Wróblewski in the press and destroyed the unlawful telecommunications data that concerned him.

Defence of the right to privacy

The LSW team handled a case of one of the best Polish vocalists against a tabloid regarding a publication describing sensitive aspects of her private life. The Warsaw Court of Appeal upheld our client’s request and forbade journalists to follow the star. The case was widely commented in the media, and the verdict significantly affected the activity of the paparazzi in our country.

Reputation protection of a leading energy company

In this intricate case concerning the limits of journalistic criticism and the freedom of speech, the Court of Appeals shared the stance in the appeal filed by LSW stating that unreliable actions of journalists – biased and unproven information – cannot be considered within the limits of permitted criticism, if their content violates the personality rights of others and, in particular, their reputation.

Personality rights of journalists

The LSW lawyers represented a couple of prominent journalists in their dispute with one of the tabloids. The Court of First Instance found that the series of publications constituted a violation of their personality rights, including the right to privacy. The judgement imposed on the defendant the necessity to publish an apology, a ban on further violations of privacy, peace, and sense of security, and ordered a high amount of redress.

Personality rights vs internal Internet forum

LSW handled probably the first case in Poland where the court had to decide on the violation of personality rights by the statements of Internet users within an internal online discussion forum, or lack thereof. As a result of LSW’s actions, the defendant was ordered by the court to send emails to all forum members with apologies to the plaintiff for publishing harmful content.